slowday

From another link on the Underwater times web page it seems like delta is about to have lots of company in its carp misery. http://www.jsonline.com/news/state/may04/226545.asp These carp are huge. Maybe we can send you some snakeheads and they will take care of the carp in the water; and then when they start crawling on the land looking for another body of water they can also put a big hurt on the herds of nutria. slowday

Yeah this is really bad news and its kind of hard to believe that these fish have found their way into more than one body of water in the area. In the Washington Post story it says that the only thing the fish and game authorities can do is ask fisherman to kill any they find; maybe offer a hat as a reward and pray that the snakefish don't overrun the fishing stocks. slow

Now I know what I'm going to be doing on the last day of my vacation. Do you grease the bottom of the pan before putting the dumplings in the bottom of the 13x9? And should I put a sheet pan on the rack below the pan in case of spillover? slowday not afraid of lard

You forgot to include the Pittsburgh Pirates which have been known to eat huge sandwiches stuffed with meats and french fries. slowday

I'm not a native of Balitimore and I'm sure someone can give a more detailed explanation but to me, pit beef is basically roast beef on a kaiser roll. I go to a local place north of Baltimore and watch them cook it on the cooler side of the charcol grill they use to cook burgers and chicken breasts and a few other things. The beef gets sliced off and dunked into a pan of gravy before being put onto a roll. Its not a wet beef sandwich like in Chicago. I usually get mine with mayo, horseradish and bar-b-que sauce. And if the timing is right you can get the ends of the beef that gets too well done to put into a sandwich. I'm not a native of Balitimore and I'm sure someone can give a more detailed explanation. The pit beef from Andy Nelson's north of the cityis probably the best pit beef sandwich I've had since I moved here although at Nelson's its kind of a lost item compared to the ribs and the brisket. I thought that Baltimore was a crab and seafood place but I've been here about two years and everytime there is some kind of event its been bar-b-que everytime. They may be famous for crabcakes but pig rules. slowday

When I lived in Alexandria a few years back I remember reading a Washington Post article also trying to find a signature dish for the DC area. The best they could come up with was also a half smoke. Sounds like the official word to me. I used to have a half smoke breakfast sandwich once a week or so; half smoke with egg and cheese on a roll. slowday

A red egg shaped stone with a plastic cover you put in the pot with eggs. When the stone changes from red to black from the edge to the center the eggs are hard cooked. Works perfectly everytime, although you have to stand and watch it the last minute to be sure to take it off the heat when the color reaches the center, otherwise it overcooks. Ten cents at a yard sale. I thinks that's the only thing I've ever bought at a yard sale. slowday

I learned a lot from Taste as well, but it wasn't exactly dynamic stuff. I've been watching FTV since it went on the air with Robin Leach and it basically keeps changing. It seem like these days they are trying to come up with programs that demonstrate that food is both exciting and entertaining. Emeril even has his own band. The tasting part seems almost like a secondary part of the evening shows. Most of the entertainment on the channel these days comes from watching Al Roker morph into three different sizes in the same show. Of course that's not new for the food network. After the Robin Leach era they had an afternoon program featuring diet researcher Dr. Lou Aroni giving advice on losing weight , and watching the co-host whose name I can't remember, slowly gaining weight during the run of the show. Kind of perversely hilarious. slowday

"The bad news is that half of small bakeries in Paris are producing baguettes de tradition which are, quite frankly, awful. The good news is that even these bad, traditional baguettes are a hundred times better than standard, white baguettes." In the article it says he has visited half of the bakeries in Paris so I'm assuming he's talking about the bakeries he has sampled that are making traditional baguettes which are better than the standard white baguettes. So who is making the standard white baguettes? slowday

Just out of curiosity, what is the advantage of a mirror finished edge on a knife? slowday

As was noted earlier in this thread, the statute of limitations on the sexual abuse elapsed and criminal proceedings were not possible. I also agree that recovered memory is an extremely rare phenomenon that has been used by people not qualified to judge its validity. However, I don't think that any of the men involved were claiming hidden memory, just isolating shame. Usually when the first person is willing to step forward the others realizing they are not alone also come forward. Its a kind of a familiar pattern. The complaint on the smoking gun site described a pattern of alledged abuse of that occurred at the catering company. It said that Mr. Smith systematically hired these men under the pretense of employment and later used the employment as a way to pressure them into sexual acts. In many cases where there is no satisfaction in the criminal system the recourse is a civil trial for monetary damages. The O. J. Simpson civil case is an example. Now I don't really know if Mr. Smith is guilty or not and I guess I really don't care. The only people who know for sure are Mr. Smith and his accusers and they apparently have settled and moved on. I do know that if I was one of the men claiming abuse I sure would rather have a just and private settlement than go through a public trial with a local celebrity. BTW, the US Senate is thinking of extending the statute of limitations on sexual abuse cases, apparently because of the time it takes people to come forward once they reach their legal status to be able to file claims without parent or guardian. BTW..The complaint says that the accusers realized for the first time in and around 1996 that they were suffering severe emotional effects from the alledged abuse. To me that doesn't mean they weren't aware of the alledged abuse, as they would have been with recovered memory, but that they weren't aware of the effects that the alledged abuse had on their emotional lives. alleged slowday

I wonder if they're going to flame broil their angus burgers. Flame broiling is much better than ordinary grilling and I bet the angus burgers are much better than ordinary burgers.

And now you can extrude your own peeps http://www.wham-o.com/content/marshpeeps.html

The link to Ted's shows the kind of contraption that steam cooks the hamburgers. Everytime I hear the words steam and burger I think of White Castle and their steam grilling. The burgers look great and the onions have a nice color but those fries are the killer. They look twice cooked and thick cut which is combination I haven't seen. Truly awesome.

Absolutely...as soon as we finish dealing with my wife's maiden aunt who lives a lot neater but is only 94 so it may be a while before I can get over there. slowday

My wife had an uncle who was a bachelor his whole life and lived like a pig. He was a miser and wouldn't spend dime one on himself let alone a sponge. We would go up there and hold our breath as we cleaned his kitchen of moldy food he still intended to eat, grease on the countertop and pats of butter that came with his take out toast which he figured he would use in time. One of us would distract him and the other would blitz the kitchen throwing things out before he could protest. And of course he lived to 97. I have a friend who worked for the CCD and every once in a while he would drop helpful pieces of advice. One was to wear disposable gloves everytime we handled raw poultry; another was to avoid any kind of candy or mints in bowls by the register in restaurants. He never mentioned sponges. slow

A very interesting article on eating trends on MSNBC.com http://msnbc.com/news/957214.asp "IRI, which tracks supermarket sales data, notes that while traditional snacks, such as a bag of pretzels, are showing moderate growth, consumers are really hot for traditional items made easy — like oatmeal in a cup. And we’re willing to pay two or three times the price for convenience."

Wegman's is actually in the beginning stages of building a store in an area north of Baltimore called Hunt Valley, which is in the shadow of the corporate headquarters of McCormick spices. The store is supposedly going to be about 130,000 square feet, located in mall area that is undergoing extensive renovation. The extensive renovation includes tearing down the entire center third of the mall while keeping the wall mart on one end and the sears on the other. Apparently once the demolition is complete the new store construction will start. The opening is still probably years away. Wegman's originally wanted to build on a parcel of land a mile south of Hunt Valley but was denied zoning because of a neighborhood group which claimed that the new store would cause serious traffic congestion. The funny thing is that its closest neighbors would have been a Sam's Club and a Lowes Home Improvement Center. The rumor is that some of the supermarkets in the area funded the neighborhood group, since there really isn't much in the way of neighborhoods near where the Wegman's wanted to build. This area could really use a Wegman's type store. There is a local Giant supermarket near the Hunt Valley mall which was considered so trendy in what they offered that it was nicknamed the Gucci Giant, even though its basically just your standard big city supermarket. Wegman's will seem like an alien spaceship supermarket landed in our midst fattening us up with great foods. I wonder if they have a cookbook called To Serve Man?

Rita's is good and I don't think the quality of the water ice product has changed during the expansion from the single store on Bristol Pike to having franchised the operation. Not so sure about the other stuff though, especially the custard. The gelatti with a real custard would be unbelievable. I live in suburban Baltimore and the big thing out here is shaved ice with syrup, but there is a Rita's close by and on hot summer evenings the water ice is like a trip home. If Domino's was the Rita's of pizza their pizza would actually be good. I like John's a lot when I was doing classes at the Fleischer art memoriall around the corner. The lemon was especially great. So whaddya think, does Rita's use artificial colors in their ices? Slowday

Hi, my name is slowday and I'll be my waiter tonight. And don't even think of returning the steak if it isn't cooked right. You know what a temper the cook has when things don't turn out right. Coming next is a self service checkout like McD's is planning. The grill marks on the steak is actually a bar code listing the weight and the legnth of time on the grill (well done costs more due to increased cooking time) . Slowday

I was in Columbus, Ohio on business and had dinner in one of the outposts of the Skyline chain. Friday night at 5 and I was the only person in the joint. The meal came with a oyster crackers and a plastic bib. I started with a small three way and then a medium and for dessert a chilli dog. All real good. The sauce was nice and thick. My experience in Italian restaurants is that if the sauce is watery the pasta hasn't been drained enough. Probably the same here. Later on the place was doing good business, I guess 5 is too early for dinner in Columbus. I must be a real hick. The real dessert was the chocolate chip at graeters ice cream store out near the Ohio Ag farm. After eating the three course three way at skyline and the double scoop at graeters there were EMTs following me back to the hotel just in case. Holly, you should get a James Beard award for your extensive research into Jersey Dogs. slowday